The Strange One
by Saezuri Nohito
Summary: If Tersa had not been broken...then perhaps everything would have happened differently. Everything. Post 'Zuulaman'. AU. SaetanTersa. Excerpt from Chapter 1: 'Her name is Tersa. And I’ve never seen her before in my entire life.'


Note: _Words _– sentences where all, or almost all of its words are in italics are people's thoughts.

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Chapter One

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1 – SaDiablo Hall, Saetan's study

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The door to the study opened, the one who'd opened it hadn't even bothered to knock; and Andulvar Yaslana was more than a little irritated. "I _said_, _no_-"

The most dazzling woman he'd _ever_ seen before entered, carrying a bundle of white cloth that seemed to be covering something. She as-a-matter-of-factly handed the bundle to him, and he'd _dumbly_ accepted it automatically before he knew what he was doing.

He stared down at it and snapped out of his daze. "_This is...!_"

He didn't realize that the strange woman was approaching his best friend, whom he had been trying to keep anyone from seeing. By the time he did though, she was sitting in front of the Hayllian, and was in the same trance he was.

Left with a loss of what to do, the Demon Prince occupied the chair next to the woman, just in case anything happens – and once again looked at the bundle in his arms.

Barely the length of his arm, from his fingertips to his elbow; the bundle slept peacefully, unaware of the turmoil he had caused in his and Saetan's hearts.

They thought him to be _dead_, the dissembled body parts buried in the garden were very much the evidence of that...

But he wasn't. How could he be, when that supposedly dead person was right in his arms at this very moment?

That's right.

Saetan's youngest son was still alive; the one whose corpse had sent the normally strong-willed man into the Twisted Kingdom.

_Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful._

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2 – Twisted Kingdom

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Saetan Daemon SaDiablo was floating above the Zuulaman Islands, and for the umpteenth time, was destroying them.

But doing this _wasn't_ going to bring his son back. No matter _how_ many times he did it, no matter how _utterly_ _complete_ the destruction, no matter _what_...doing this _wasn't_ going to change _anything_.

He prepared for another onslaught as the islands, somehow, appeared again, as they had been doing ever since he was here, which had been for quite for a bit.

"Don't."

That one word, spoken in a barely heard, soft, gentle voice, made his heart skip a beat and stilled him. _Especially_, since it was that of a _female's_.

He turned to look into the far-seeing golden eyes of an extremely stunning woman with black hair that fell in thick waves to her too-thin hips. She had on a simple black dress that fell to her ankles and had long sleeves, the sleeves wider at the hem than they usually were; with a neckline that dipped slightly in the valley between her breasts, giving anyone who looked there a teasing glimpse of her fair skin.

"...Who are you?" he asked, his golden eyes narrowing. He was pretty much wary of _any_ female at this point, because of _that _woman.

"My name is Tersa," the woman said simply, and seemed content to just leave it at that.

"Why...did you tell me to stop?" he continued to ask, all the while wondering who this mysterious woman was.

"What you are doing...," she looked away from him, him following her gaze, where it settled on the islands beneath them. "...will _not_ change _anything_."

Saetan, whose every emotion had gone, even anger and rage; after continuously destroying the place that had doomed his son's very existence, felt those two emotions rising quickly in him once again. "How dare you-"

"But," she interrupted him, as if she didn't realize that he was currently quickly slipping into the kidding edge. "If doing _this_ satisfies you, then perhaps my coming here was a _waste_, after all. I bid you farewell, then."

She turned away, and was already fading into nothingness when he grabbed one of her wrists, which he instantly noted was rather thin as well. "Wait...what do you mean, _if_ I'm satisfied with this?" He narrowed his eyes again. "You..._why_ did you come here?"

She turned those far-seeing eyes of hers back to his confused, slightly crazed ones. "If I told you...that there _was_ something you could do to _change_ what has happened...would you do it?"

He narrowed his eyes even further. "What do you mean?"

She remained looking unflinchingly back at him. "_Would_ _you_?" she repeated.

"...Of course I would," he finally relented, after persistently looking at her, who seemed completely unaffected by his withering glare that had sent the strongest of men fleeing.

"Then," she placed her hand on his that still held her other wrist. "You should go back...and see to the people who await your return...," the slightest of smiles lifted one end of her dry lips, "...and take good care of your _son_."

What she said froze him and before he could recover enough from his shock to speak, everything around them began to quickly fade away.

.-.-.

3 – SaDiablo Hall, Saetan's study

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Saetan's son had woken up a while ago and had been making quite a racket ever since, and the Eyrien, who wasn't good with children in the first place, was so distracted in trying to calm the wailing child down, that it took him a moment to realize that the strange woman was no longer beside him.

"Hey!" he called out, approaching her, who was heading towards the door. "Wait, just where do you think you're-"

A hoarse, whisper of a voice interrupted him, the voice of someone he thought he wouldn't hear from again for a very long time to come. "Andulvar..."

He turned, completely forgetting about the currently exiting woman, and met the gaze of his good friend's half-opened, but lucid eyes. "Saetan...?"

"Andulvar," Saetan repeated, slowly getting up, his eyes on the bundle in his friend's arms. "Is – is that really...?"

"See for yourself," Andulvar handed him the wailing bundle.

And smiled when the babe finally stopped wailing and tears fell from the relieved father's eyes.

"But how...?" Saetan asked, holding his youngest child close to his face, breathing in the clean, lovely scent that all babies seemed to have. "How could he still be-"

"_Hell's fire_!" Andulvar cut his words short before the irritated Eyrien strode towards the door in haste. "I forgot all about her!"

But when he opened the door, she was already gone. And when they asked all the servants in the house, it seemed as if no one had ever seen such a woman, much less seen her enter the Hall.

"Who was that woman?" Andulvar asked when they were back in the sanctuary of the study. "Someone you know?"

"Her name is Tersa." Saetan looked up from where he'd been looking at his youngest son's peacefully sleeping face. "And I've_ never_ seen her before in my entire life."

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_To be continued_

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This is my first attempt at making an AU – Alternate Universe – for BJT. I hope it was alright. Thanks for taking your time to read 'The Strange One'. Be seeing you at the next chap, then.


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